#SGYOGADADS with GORDON OGDEN

In honor of Father's day, we teamed up with yogi dad Gordon Ogden for our #SGYOGADADS instagram contest! Follow Gordon at @gordonogden all week long for daily challenges honoring all the fathers and father figures in our lives.

To participate, follow Gordon's instagram account for the week of June 7th-15th for poses each day. Tag your picture with @gordonogden, @spiritualgangster, and #SGYOGADADS for your chance to win a $100 gift card to spiritualgangster.com! Namaste

Gordon sat down with us and shared his How-To Tips for posting your most stunning pictures on instagram.

8 How-to Tips for Posting Yoga Photos on Instagram

Are you new to yoga or an experienced practitioner?

Have you heard about all the yogis and yoga challenges on Instagram but not sure how to join the fun?

Right now there’s thousands of yogis on Instagram sharing their practice, teaching and inspiring like no other social media platform.

Instagram has become THE perfect online platform for sharing yoga across the planet.

Here are 8 tips to getting started:

1. Open your Instagram account.

Download the free app. Be sure to turn your account privacy status to off if you want to participate in the different yoga challenges. Challenge hosts need to be able to see your pictures. The default when you open the account is to have the account set to private.

Instagram is meant to be used on a smartphone - either iPhone or Droid. You can use a laptop or desktop web browser but the functionality is very limited by design.

Tip+: If possible make your username your name, or close to it. This makes it easier to remember you and for people to tag you.

2. You need a mini tripod

This will hold your phone while you bust a pose.

There’s many choices - I recommend the Joby brand of mini-tripods. This is the one I use, it’s small and has magnetic feet.

Tip+: Be sure to get the adaptor that actually holds your model phone.

3. Camera app with “interval timer” option

This is a critical piece. The interval timer allows you to set a timer for say 3 seconds and it will shoot every 3 seconds. This allows you time to get in position, get into the pose and know that you have a few shots to choose from.

For the iPhone and Droid platforms I recommend the app Camera Awesome - I shoot all my photos with this app and then save them to my phone camera roll.

4. Editing Photos

There’s literally thousands of options for editing photos. My base “go-to editing app” is Snapseed. Its available for both iPhone and Droid. It’s free and it’s amazing.

Tip+: In addition to editing the photo you may want to add type to the photo - for the iPhone I recommend the app “Over”. For Droid, use “PicLab”.

5. Joining a Challenge

You’re now ready. As an example see the promo for the #SGYOGADADS challenge starting June 8th continuing until Father's Day June 15th . First thing you need to do is search on Instagram to find and follow the host(s) listed below. By following the hosts you will see what the pose is for each day. You’ll want to follow any sponsors as well.

Follow @gordonogden and @spiritualgangster, and make sure to tag your photos as #SGYOGADADS.

Using the tripod and apps above, shoot the pose and post it to your Instagram.

6. Posting to Instagram

You know the pose, and you’ve taken a picture of yourself in the pose.

Here’s a few key points to posting:

Make sure to include the Day number, challenge name #SGYOGADADS for this one and the pose name. Each challenge is different so there may be additional items to include depending on what the hosts want to see.

Tag the host(s) in the picture. When posting click “Tag People” - this notifies the hosts of your picture making it easier to be seen by the hosts.

Include additional hashtags in a separate comment on your post. You can add up to 30 hashtags. Hashtags should be relevant to the content of the photo. Pose name, location, colors, and any other relevant descriptions. Hashtags help your post get discovered by other people on Instagram.

7. Instagram etiquette

Instagram is not Facebook - Post only 1 image at a time. I recommend at least 3 hours between posts and no more than 4 posts a day. If you do multiple posts you run the risk of losing followers because you’re flooding their Instagram feed.

Tip+: If you really want to post multiple photos to tell a story try using a collage app like PicFrame. This app allows you to frame up to 10 additional images into one picture. I usually do no more than 4 photos to keep the size large enough to understand each of the 4 pics as 1 on Instagram.

8. Comments on Instagram

Don’t just like other peoples post….leave a comment. Commenting is appreciated more and helps build a relationship with the other person. Whenever replying to a comment on a post be sure to include the username @their-name in the comment otherwise they may never know you replied to them.

Don’t forget - have fun! You’ll meet some of the most inspiring and kind yogis in this Instagram community.

Namaste,

Gordon Ogden

For more Instagram and yoga photography tips follow Gordon @gordonogden

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3 comments

Givan: January 15, 2015

I suck at Facebook. I really wasn’t kniddig when I sent out a tweet a few months back asking why someone hadn’t written a FB book for dummies yet. I got the best answers back and they were all about how FB doesn’t even know how to figure out FB because too many upgrades/changes happen at once and without notice.You are not alone, KLZ you are never alone!!

Hitomi: January 14, 2015

I hate that.I also hate that via my FB mobile app:1) I can’t post links as my FB page on my FB page2) Sometimes I click on one link and I get thworn into a completely different screen. I click on notifications and suddenly I’m in events. WTH3) Some notifications don’t show up in FB apps. I get notified but I can’t see it.4) My FB page notifications don’t reset when I check it on my mobile.5) It’s so slow in pulling up outside links (no it doesn’t keep me on FB. In fact, now I just open all the links in Safari and don’t go back to FB for hours)Okay, that covers it. FOR NOW.

Dawn: June 08, 2014

Thanks so much for the information and in particular the Instagram etiquette. :)